{"id":15390,"date":"2020-09-12T09:53:36","date_gmt":"2020-09-12T13:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=15390"},"modified":"2020-09-27T15:12:04","modified_gmt":"2020-09-27T19:12:04","slug":"ebola-in-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/ebola-in-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Ebola in America: Outbreaks and New Strains"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is there Ebola in America? How did the outbreaks of Ebola in America begin, and how were they stopped?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Ebola was discovered, there have been several outbreaks of Ebola in America. These outbreaks were of different strains and created serious health crises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more about the outbreaks of Ebola in America and Ebola cases in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

1989\u2014Ebola in America<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The mysteries surrounding filoviruses\u2019 source and transmission intensified with the appearance of Ebola in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In October of 1989, 100 wild monkeys were shipped from the Philippines to the Reston Primate Quarantine Unit in Reston, Virginia. The facility was an arm of Hazleton Research Products, a company that imported and sold lab animals. When imported wild monkeys arrive in the United States\u2014typically for laboratory testing\u2014they must be held in quarantine for a month before they\u2019re sent anywhere else in the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When this shipment of monkeys arrived, two were already dead. A few dead monkeys wasn\u2019t unusual, but in less than a month, 29 of the 100 monkeys had died. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Mystery Disease at the Reston Facility<\/strong>: The Start of Ebola in America<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Many of the Ebola cases in the US came from the Reston facility outbreak. The monkey colony manager, Bill Volt, considered the fact that the building\u2019s air system was broken, and the heat was running high. The relentless heat could have put a strain on the monkeys and caused the deaths\u2014but that didn\u2019t explain why most of the deaths had been in just one room, Room F. Volt called Hazleton\u2019s consulting veterinarian, Dan Dalgard<\/a>, to take a look at the monkeys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dalgard inspected the remaining monkeys in Room F, he found two that were sick and feverish. Both died that night, and when Volt and Dalgard dissected the monkey corpses the next day, they found that the monkeys\u2019 spleens were swollen and there was blood in their intestines. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More monkeys in Room F died and Dalgard continued to investigate. None of the monkeys seemed terribly ill, besides having enlarged, tough spleens. However, Dalgard didn\u2019t recognize that their spleens weren\u2019t simply swollen\u2014they had actually become <\/em>solid blood clots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dalgard removed a piece of spleen and collected a throat swab from one of the dead monkeys, and he sent it to Peter Jahrling, a civilian virologist at USAMRIID.<\/strong> Dalgard believed the disease killing these monkeys was simian hemorrhagic fever (SHF), which was fatal for monkeys but didn\u2019t affect humans. After some testing, Jahrling tentatively agreed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Dalgard got the verdict from USAMRIID, he killed the rest of the monkeys in Room F, in order to stop the disease from spreading to monkeys in other rooms, and increasing the number of Ebola cases in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, Dalgard returned to the Reston facility to find that five monkeys had died in a room two doors down from Room F. This was alarming: Not only was the disease spreading, but it could skip rooms, suggesting it could be airborne. <\/strong>This was a significant turning point for Ebola in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unusual Cell Cultures from the Reston Monkey Sample<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Geisbert<\/a>, an intern at USAMRIID, grew curious about the cultures that Jahrling was growing from the Reston monkey sample. Despite being just an intern, Geisbert specialized in taking high-powered electron-microscope photos and identifying the viruses he saw. He had studied the distinct shapes of various viruses and committed many to memory with concern about an Ebola outbreak in the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under a standard light microscope, the Reston cultures looked like they\u2019d been contaminated by outside bacteria. When bacteria destroy cultures, they create a smell\u2014and when Geisbert and Jahrling opened the flask and took a few whiffs, they didn\u2019t smell anything. <\/strong>However, they decided to put it under the electron microscope for a closer look anyway. It was the Friday before Thanksgiving, and they wouldn\u2019t be back at the lab until a week-and-a-half later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Identifying Ebola in America<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the holiday, Geisbert inspected the supposedly contaminated cells under his electron microscope. He recognized what he saw: The cells were bulging with rope-like viruses, just like he\u2019d seen in pictures of samples from Cardinal\u2019s blood. It was a filovirus, but the threads were less curled than Marburg virus<\/a> particles. <\/strong>This was a change for Ebola in America. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geisbert printed the images and showed Jahrling. Jahrling recognized the signature thread-like shapes. Although there were some differences between the cells in Geisbert\u2019s photos and the images of Marburg in the textbook they consulted, it was close enough to be concerning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Geisbert and Jahrling thought of how they\u2019d sniffed the flask with the cell cultures, and they worried about their exposure. <\/strong>It had been 10 days, and neither had developed any symptoms\u2014but they were in the middle of the incubation period, so they weren\u2019t in the clear yet. They decided to take the wait-and-see approach, meanwhile testing their blood to check for signs of infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jahrling and Geisbert Sound the Alarm<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Jahrling alerted Colonel Clarence Peters, the chief of USAMRIID\u2019s disease-assessment division. Peters, Jahrling, and Geisbert considered the possibilities<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n